The statements in the following section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Computers have become an integral part of every day life. Information is communicated, processed, and stored using computers. The computer industry has responded with innovations to meet increasing computing demands of its customers. In particular, computers continue to improve by providing users with more capability, faster processing speeds, and more memory storage capacity. These improvements have led to increasing demands for external data storage devices that allow a user to easily transport relatively large amounts of computer data.
Thus, flash drives and other removable memory storage devices have been developed that can connect to a computer and receive and store computer files quickly and easily. These devices are then removed from the computer to transport the computer files. These devices are often relatively small for convenience. Also, the removable external memory devices are available in a broad range of memory storage capacities.
Although these external memory devices have been widely used, it can be difficult to identify what is stored on the device. A user can find out what is stored in the memory on these removable memory storage devices by connecting the device to a computer and listing the files stored in memory on the computer's screen. However, without the computer, a user cannot easily identify the stored contents of the removable memory storage device. Other devices display limited information about the stored contents. For instance, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/163,551 to Change discloses a portable flash drive that displays the current memory space available on the device. However, in order to view and manage the files stored on the Change flash drive, the user must connect the drive to a computer. As such, the Change flash drive is relatively limited in its capabilities.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an external memory storage device that allows a user to more easily and conveniently view and manage contents stored thereon.